Appeal No. 1996-0584
Application No. 07/658,878
continuous phase component from their respective vessels into a uniform shear force generating field of
a disperser simultaneously and continuously through associated independent passageways.
Since all the limitations of independent claims 1 and 29 are not disclosed or suggested by the
applied prior art, Vanzo, under 35 U.S.C. § 103, we will not sustain the rejection of dependent claims
2-8, 19-25, 27 and 30-33 under § 103. Dependent claims are nonobvious under § 103 if the
independent claims from which they depend are nonobvious. In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 1074, 5
USPQ2d 1596, 1598 (Fed. Cir. 1988).
Having concluded that the examiner has not established a prima facie case of obviousness, we
do not reach the rebuttal evidence of unexpected results discussed on pages 10-13 of the brief.
OTHER MATTERS
U.S. Patent 1,690,688, issued November 6, 1928 to China et al. (China) was applied as prior
art in a related appeal in Application 08/181,539 which application, according to appellants is a
continuation of Application 07/840,141, filed February 24, 1992, now abandoned, application which
is a division of the Application present. China discloses a suspension polymerization method using mill
mixers having two separate feed inlets for materials wherein the feed mixes between the working
surfaces of two opposed upper and lower rotors in Fig. 4. Fig. 5 shows a rotor-stator combination
wherein particles are held tightly pressed against the surface producing a film shear. In the event of any
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